Q: iPhone 4s Battery Life?

My iPhone 4S was working wonderfully and in the past week it has suddenly been dropping precipitously, but not all the time.  Yesterday, it went all day and was only down to 70% when I powered down last night.  Today, by lunch it was down to 30% and then when I came back from lunch it was down to 15%.  I killed all apps and locked it to prevent draining so I could at least have some juice to last until I get home.  I just checked (it's now 2:24pm) and it's completely drained.  From 15% to zero with no use at all in less than two hours.  I should mention that I'm not a heavy user, I sent a couple texts and checked email this morning.

hmm, i tried replying in this thread yesterday and couldn't, but today I can...

I had a similar problem as you are describing.

I tried adjusting settings, hard resets, resetting network settings, etc, various things that didn't seem to help.  Then I found this Apple support article (duh!) that seemed to help http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html.  When I went through this article step by step I found that under "fetch new data" i had the global setting for push "on" although I had turned that off at every apps individually (I thought), and one of my gmail accounts was still set on "fetch" although overall my mail app was set to "manual" fetch.

I turned both of those off and now my phone is back to making it all day with moderate usage.  I am still curious/concerned that my usage and standby are still almost the same... usage will show as maybe 1/2 hour less than standby at the end of the day.... but actual battery life seems to be greatly improved.  At least I got through the whole day yesterday and still was over 50% battery when I went to bed.

Hi - I have experienced something similar, all of a sudden my iPhone 4s started draining rapidly (100% - 15%) in 2-4 hours! And the handset was getting warm. I'd class myself as medium usage as I use the phone predominately for work call, emails and SMS. Until the issue I was leavin home with 100% and after a full day at work getting home with approx 40-50%.

I have tried backing up and then restoring to no effect. After this I checked put the posts on this forum and as a result I tried deleting all email accounts and then resetting / rebooting the phone and then reloading from the backup. At this stage, only eight hours, it seems to have worked. I still have 100% (off work today) and the handset is stone cold (I work between Abu Dhabi and Riyahd). I'm going to monitor things, but so far so good, and a big thank you to the other contributors.

safarionwin wrote:

 

thanks for your suggestions rphunte42.  I have been doing hard resets all along and that does not seem to help.  I tried the network reset and that did not help. I've become very vigilant about fully closing apps in case they have any background processes running. 

 

(I also don't have anything fetched automatically.  I shut down alerts on almost all apps.  My screen brightness is set a little over 1/2)

 

My usage and standby are still running almost neck and neck... sometimes a few minutes less usage.  Today since I unplugged from charger this morning my usage is 6:57 and standby is 7:32 ... so that's better than usual, but I have used the phone for an hour max myself, so I still wonder what is accounting for the other 5:57 usage time while it's been in my pocket.

 

Any other suggestions?  Try the reset all settings next?  On another thread I saw someone recommend a complicated procedure for resetting the phone so that 5.1.1 would be re-downloaded and installed all at once, not as an upgrade... any thoughts?

I have done the reset all settings only once.  When I suspect an app didn't really end, in spite of not showing in the multi-tasking row, I just do a hard reset, and all is well.  Currently my phone is at 1 day 9 hours with 2 hours 42 minutes usage, and 53%.

Yes try the reset all settings then select "setup as new" when it reboots. Go through the wizard. Your apps and data will remain intact but you will have to add your wifi connections back and wall paper if you have changed it.  Also if you have exchange email accounts, delete them, reboot and add them back. VERY common cause of your issue. Lastly if neither of the above steps help, look for any older apps that may not be optimized for iOS 5 causing issues with locations or notifications.

safarionwin wrote:

 

thanks for your suggestions rphunte42.  I have been doing hard resets all along and that does not seem to help.  I tried the network reset and that did not help. I've become very vigilant about fully closing apps in case they have any background processes running. 

 

(I also don't have anything fetched automatically.  I shut down alerts on almost all apps.  My screen brightness is set a little over 1/2)

 

My usage and standby are still running almost neck and neck... sometimes a few minutes less usage.  Today since I unplugged from charger this morning my usage is 6:57 and standby is 7:32 ... so that's better than usual, but I have used the phone for an hour max myself, so I still wonder what is accounting for the other 5:57 usage time while it's been in my pocket.

 

Any other suggestions?  Try the reset all settings next?  On another thread I saw someone recommend a complicated procedure for resetting the phone so that 5.1.1 would be re-downloaded and installed all at once, not as an upgrade... any thoughts?

Hey Buddy long time. How goes it? So you still hanging around huh? I had to bail because ALL the needed information is already posted in this thread multiple times yet same questions and comments over and over and over. Guess it a lot easier to just read the last page of a billion page thread LOL. Anyway just visited back here to see what was going on and thought would say hi.  See rphunte42 still hangin out too. Hi to you also!

And to all posters here with hot batteries, same usage as stdby, poor battery. Reset all settings and select setup as new as well as deleting any exchange email accounts, rebooting and adding them back and setting them to fetch will most likely help your issue. Those two items have helped numerous folks.

This has been a know issue from the sart of their launch. I would have this checked with the nearest service center for a possible reaplcement while it's still under warranty. Don't try anything yet. Chances are, it may void the warranty.

Hello,
I have had an iPhone 4s since Feburary; the first 4 months I had it the battery life was great, I was almost getting 2 days out of it. I have never really had any games on it or anything, I have 4 or 5 core apps that I use, and thats it. Out of no where, the battery life dropped to about 4 - 6 hours; I didn't download anything new, it just stopped working.

I upgraded my phone (Now on 5.1.1) that didn't change anything, so I followed the instructions to do a hard reset on it, before adding anything back to it (which I did manually anyway) I tested out the battery life, still the same. 4 - 6 hours is all that I am getting.

After reading through a lot of the forums on this, I have come to the conclusion that I need a new phone or battery; but now the real problem presented itself... I went to the apple store here in town, the person helping me does not know what a factory unlocked phone is, he saw that I was using Tmobile and said that my phone is "jailbroken" (which is not the case.) After leaving that store, I called the 1800 apple number... After a few minutes of talking back and forth, I asked the tech if he knew what an iPhone 4S Factory Unlocked was, his response was "Umm... No, I have not heard of that before." (At the end of this post, I included information from the apple's website.)

Has anyone else run into this problem? My phone should be under warranty, but I have not been able to find anyone who works at apple with enough training on the products to know what I am working with. - Please help! I paid $800.00 for this phone, I should be able to use it and not need to have a second device to keep meeting notes on.

NOTE FROM APPLE WEBSITE:
The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice, such as AT&T in the United States.* The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice. It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. To start using it, simply insert the micro-SIM card into the slot on your iPhone and turn it on by pressing and holding the On/Off button for a few seconds. Then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your iPhone.

- http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s

has anyone showed you the little trick with the home button, if you push it twice very fast it will pop up a window at the bottom of the screen, hold your finger on any one of the icon's for a few seconds and you will see a minus sign show up on all of them, then go through and hit the minus signs on all of them and turn them all off they are running in the back ground and running your batt life down, hope this helps you, I do this just about every hour to save my batt life.

That is a good trick! I actually believed I learned that from this forums... I always kill my processes, at least a few times a day; it's kind of habbit now.

I appreciate the tip!

no problem you can also goto: www.apple,com/batteries/iphone.html lots of stuff there to help.

sorry, www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

Another great tip that I have implemented in my daily / weekly use... Nothing changed it though!

All I really need to know how to do is explain to someone who works at apple what a factory unlocked phone is...

Someone recommenced that I take them to a computer in the store and pull it up online and show them then talk to them about it... I'm going to go back to the apple store tomorrow morning; hopefully that works!

SImply tell them you paid full price for the iPhone, unlocked and contract free from the Apple Store.